The First Date
by mjade24
Summary: Immediately takes place after the ending of the movie, 50/50.  If you enjoyed the movie, and wanted more after the end, then please read.  If you have not seen the movie, I recommend doing that first.  Thank you!


**Disclaimer: All characters named in this story are the property of Will Reiser and those associated with the creation of this movie and original story. I do not have any claim to any of them. **

_The story takes place immediately following the events of the movie, 50/50._

* * *

><p>"So, what now?" she asks.<p>

Adam looks at her for a while, finally coming to the realization that she's actually here. Katherine McKay, his former therapist, is here, in his house. He smiles. She lets out a slight laugh.

"Here," Adam says as he pulls out a chair for her in the dining room table. She seems somewhat surprised.

"Wow, how chivalrous," says Kate, and sits herself down.

"Well, it's the least I can do since you brought the pizza."

As they eat, there's an awkward silence between them, which seems odd to Katherine since her profession entails getting people to talk. The problem with that is she's not sure what to say. Adam, on the other hand, is lost in thought. He, too, is not sure how to start. After all, they did have a strictly professional relationship in the beginning. The idea of something more than that was probably prohibited, as far as client-therapist relationships go.

It's been approximately one month since he last saw or spoke with her. He had been busy trying to recuperate from the operation and even allowed his mother to help him out a little, so his mom was around often, helping with the house chores and taking care of his stitches. Plus, he didn't want to call Katherine until he was ready to do most things on his own.

So, when he finally got the chance to call her, he did. Now, Katherine, or Katie, the shortened moniker she told Adam she preferred being called, is here. _Can he call this a date_, he asked himself. _It was just an invite to come over, really. _To eat and talk and see whatever else could happen. It wasn't much more than that, however, no one else was here. Technically, it could be called a date, he convinced himself. Another smile creeps across his face. This time, Katie takes the opportunity to say something.

"What?" Katie asks.

He shakes his head. "Nothing." But he can't stop grinning.

"Then why are you smiling?" she asks. The smile is contagious and she can't help but smile herself.

"It's just that, well, I guess I'm glad to see you," says Adam. He can see that he's made her blush.

"Uh, yeah, well, I have to admit, I _have_ been thinking about you," says Katie, as she nods her head in her discernible way.

"Really?" he asks.

"Yeah, I wanted to know how you were holding up. But I wasn't sure if I should call, since technically, you're not a client of mine anymore."

He nods. "That's true. You are not my therapist anymore."

"Right," she says, nodding. Then silence again. They both bite into their pizza, apparently feeling that sudden awkwardness that comes from bringing to light a certain opportunity, until they've finished their piece. Adam gets a couple of beers from the fridge while Katie strolls around the living room, eyeing the décor on the walls.

Adam is now really relieved that he got rid of those horrible paintings that once hung on the walls in the living room and the bathroom. _Truly appalling_, he thought to himself. He would've hated to have to explain what they meant, or how he even got them.

"So, how _have_ you been doing?" Katie finally asks as she sits down on lazy-boy chair and accepts the bottle from Adam. Adam sits on the sofa, facing her.

"Good! Things are going well, actually. I took Skeletor for a walk today. Tried not to argue with my mom about making dinner tonight. And…" Adam stopped. It wasn't unusual for most people to have conversations like this with friends or family, but something about this conversation between them made Adam feel uncomfortable. The separation between them, her on the chair, him on the sofa, certainly didn't help. It was too similar to being in her office again.

"And?" Katie said.

"Hmm…let's not do this," Adam said. The look on Katie's face told him he might have offended her. "I don't mean, let's not do _this_," he continued, trying to differentiate his meaning from what she may be thinking. "I mean, let's not talk about me."

Katie's expression turned to acknowledgement. "Oh, okay. Yeah, sorry. I guess I sounded like I was in therapy mode, huh?" Her shoulders bob up and down as she takes a deep breath.

"No, it's okay," Adam says. He still feels there's something too formal about this situation. "Maybe you should sit here." He motions to the empty spot beside him on the sofa. He hopes she doesn't take it any other way than a way for them to get more comfortable. Katie shrugs and slowly moves over to the spot, next to him, both feet on the floor and a good enough space between them, about a foot of space.

"Is this better?" she asks, turning her head to face him.

"Yes," he nods.

He knows he has to get her to relax somehow. How, though? He already got her to come, so it's just a matter of having her stay and at least enjoy this evening. _Pizza was good, beer is fine_, he thinks. Think! Think! Think! Adam decides that maybe there's too much silence in the room, so he gestures at turning on the television, which she agrees to. A documentary about New Guinea birds and their mating techniques appears on the screen.

"So, I see why you cleaned my car," she says as she looks around the house again, which is spotless. Adam resists the urge to explain that his mother was there earlier, because even if she wasn't, he still does like to keep his place in order. He's reminded of that time she drove him home, her car atrociously barraged with all kinds of leftover bags from fast-food places. He couldn't help himself, though, and he had to clean it up. It didn't make sense for her car to be in that shape. Such a pretty girl with a junky car didn't make sense to him. Then another thought occurs to him.

"Can I ask you something?" Adam says.

"Sure," Katie says.

"Why _did_ you give me a ride that day? I mean, I appreciated it, really. But, you didn't think that kind of weird?"

Katie thinks about it for a second, and shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe. But then you cleaned my car. I think that kind of broke the ice on weirdness."

"Yeah, I guess so," Adam admits, chuckling about it.

"So, what made you decide to be a therapist in the first place?" Adam asks. "You didn't have a family member with cancer, did you?" As soon as he said it, the thought occurs to him that maybe this wasn't a good question to ask so nonchalantly. What if she actually had personal trauma dealing with a family member who had cancer and this was her way of dealing with it. He looks up at her worriedly, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have asked-"

"No, it's fine. No, nobody in my family had cancer. Actually, it was a girl from my high school. She was diagnosed with A.L.L. I didn't know her that well at first, but I saw her one time during the summer after she was diagnosed. She was standing outside the school and I was just leaving from ASB Officer training. I asked her how she was only because I didn't know what else to say. She told me she wouldn't be able to go back to school that year. Then I said something to her," she pauses, recalling that moment in her head. She shifts her body position on the sofa to face Adam better, and leans her side against the back of the sofa. "After that, she smiled, gave me a hug and left. Ever since then, I realized that's what I wanted to do, help people."

They start talking about other things, the little stuff. She learns that Adam met Kyle in junior high school, when Kyle just started talking to Adam out of nowhere. He learns Katie tells people she likes alternative rock, but really has a thing for Josh Groban. Katie prefers chai tea over coffee. Adam drinks whatever the house blend is.

On and on they go, learning more about each other. Adam listens intently, trying very much to concentrate on what she's saying, but every once in a while, he just stares, sometimes at her lips, sometimes her eyes, and even at the pendant hanging from her neck. It takes a second for Adam to realize that Katie has stopped talking. When he looks back at her eyes again, she looks as if she's waiting for an answer. But can he recall what the question was? Was it something about Skeletor?

"Oh, he's in the backyard," Adam says, pulling the question from some secret region in his mind where panic sets it off. "Do you want to meet him?" She agrees.

The outside air is nice and cool, and Skeletor eagerly greets Katie for the first time. Skeletor likes her, too.

"Hi Skeletor! Nice to meet you," Katie says with controlled earnest as she bends down to pet him. Adam joins in, giving Skeletor some much desired attention. "He's a beautiful dog." Adam wishes he could say the same, but he never thought of Skeletor as beautiful. Cute, maybe, in an ugly sort of way, but not beautiful. "I'm glad you decided to keep him," Katie continues and she stands back up. Skeletor looks up at both of them, a look of puzzlement on his face.

"Yeah, he's a good dog," Adam says. Skeletor is the one thing that Adam kept that was given to him by his ex-girlfriend. He told Adam about Rachael's gift to him, and he guessed Katie wondered if he kept Skeletor or if Adam had given him back to Rachael, or if Rachael had taken the dog from him, or even worse, if the dog was sent back to the animal shelter after they had broken up.

"You're a good owner," Katie says, then she looks up at the night sky, seemingly trying to distract herself from his gaze. Adam looks at her with a furrowed brow, but then laughs. All of this is so weird and different and surreal for him, he doesn't know what to make of her at all. But through all this confusion, he can't help but like her even more.

He pulls up two lounge chairs and they sit underneath the stars. There's not a cloud in the sky, a seemingly unusual sight in the Seattle sky.

"Do you sit out here a lot?" Katie asks.

He hesitates, then says "No." They look at each other, laughing. He knows it's a nervous laugh, as with all the others that they've shared so far tonight. "But there's not really much to look at out here." Adam is staring at her while she stares up. He can see a slight smile creep across her face.

"See that?" she points up at a set of bright stars. Adam thinks he sees it, but isn't sure if he's even looking in the right place, so he moves his chair closer to hers. She leans towards his direction, pointing at the set of stars again. His head is practically touching hers.

"See the four stars with a little star kind of in the middle? Four stars create the box, with the top corner connecting into a line, and there's another line that bends right below it, and then on the bottom right corner another line, that bends near the end of it… that's Pegasus."

"That's Pegasus? The winged horse?" Adam asks, looking unconvinced. Katie turns to look at him and is so surprised by the proximity of his face that she jerks her head back slightly. "You don't see it?"

"No," Adam says. "Where is it again?" Katie shapes out the stars for him again, and Adam nods his head as she points out the details of the constellation. Adam is amused at the fact that she's really into pointing out this constellation to her, but he doesn't let on that he already knows quite a bit about the constellations. In fact, no one would ever see the constellation of Pegasus the way that she's telling it, but he doesn't want to spoil this moment, with her being so close.

He had done a piece on constellations and the origins of astronomy at work a few years back. He was actually bored to death about the stars, but he knew there were those who lived by them. He hoped Katie wasn't like that, though – into all that "energy" and "spiritualism." The sitar music that she played during their first few sessions was bad enough, but to know that she really was into all the "new age" stuff was going to end this date real fast.

"Do you see it now?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No, not really."

Katie laughs softly.

"Are you really into that stuff?" Adam asks. Katie's face relaxes a little.

"No. I know some of them, but my dad pointed Pegasus out to me when I was little. I was into horses back then. And my dad told me about Zeus and how he had a horse that could fly. I was fascinated by it. Then he showed it to me one night when we were camping. I remembered it ever since then."

It wasn't anything big, but it seemed personal enough for Adam to take it as a sign of confidence. He notices her hand resting on the armrest of her chair, and places his own hand on his armrest, which is now a few inches away. It was definitely close enough to reach out and take her hand in his, so the question is, should he?

"I've never been camping before. The closest I got to camping was when Kyle and I slept in line for Supersonics playoff tickets," Adam says.

"You've never been camping?" Katie asks in a surprised tone.

Adam shakes his head. "My mom wasn't really the 'outdoorsy' type."

"Wow," Katie says, "that's kind of… pathetic." Adam looks at her, and starts laughing. "Sorry, I mean, we live right next to one of the most beautiful national parks in the U.S. I would've thought everyone living here goes camping on a regular basis."

"I guess I'm not everyone," Adam says.

He didn't have to make the first move. Katie touched his arm, just like she had before, but this time he didn't feel uncomfortable about it. He took that chance to grip her hand firmly in his, but he didn't want to look at her face at that moment. He was nervous at what he would see. If she didn't like it, then she could pull away, but she didn't.

"Maybe we should do something about that one of these days," Katie says nonchalantly. In her mind, she immediately felt that she said something that implied more than what she wanted to imply, at least for a first date. "Or, I mean, _you_ should do something about that one of these days."

"Yeah, sure," Adam says, squeezing her hand gently in agreement. Adam was never all that interested in camping, maybe he got that from his mother, but to go camping with Katie was a considerable idea. She was so interesting, this girl that was inspired to be a therapist because of a friend from high school. She must've made a real impact, although he didn't quite get that impression during their sessions. He can hear the sitar music now. It brought up another question.

"What did you tell her?" Adam asks. Katie's brows furrow.

"Who?"

"Your friend from high school. With A.L.L." says Adam.

"Oh," Katie says. He sees that she's unsure of what to say, but he waits patiently for her answer. "Well, actually, I just said 'Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be back before the school year's over.'"

To Adam, that didn't seem very inspiring at all. He's not sure if he wants to ask, but his curiosity gives him the drive to ask anyway. "Did she? Go back to school?" he asks calmly, more for her sake than his. She looks up again, but he's looking at her profile, and he already knows the answer to his question.

"No, she died."

It seemed it was the exact opposite of what he originally thought. It wasn't that she was inspired to become a therapist because of the positivity of her message to her friend. Adam comes to the conclusion that maybe Katie's harboring some kind of guilt because of it, which caused her to want to be a therapist, to want to do better at helping and encouraging others. He can tell it bothered her to recall that moment, but he was touched she actually opened up about it. In a way, it made him more drawn to her, to know that she has her own challenges to overcome. He didn't even know that he interlocked his fingers with hers until it was already done.

Katie looks at their hands. Touch. She said that touch was a way to promote trust. _So, do I trust him_, Katie wonders. She did actually tell him about her high school friend, which is a sensitive subject for her talk about in the first place. But she answered his question, and to her, that was something. She never really discussed this with any of her past boyfriends, so what is it about him?

He is cute, she admits to herself. She knows that outward appearances can be a big influence on how people connect with other people, but it's certainly not enough. She doesn't want to that to be the main determining factor in all of this. That's part of the reason her last relationship didn't work out. She trusted him too much because of his looks.

Adam is different, though. From their sessions, she got to know him, to learn about him and how he ticks. She didn't always give the right answers or create an atmosphere of confidence in him, but of course, she's still new at all of it. And she knew he had a problem with her being young, which was understandable. That in itself didn't instill enough trust for him to be totally honest with her much of the time.

Still, even with that, there were those moments when he did open up to her. That time when he talked about her mother and she gave him sound advice about it. She could see she really make him think about that. Or that time when he called her at midnight. She remembers that night vividly, and thought about it often, because of what he said.

He asked her what she was doing up, and she only hinted to the fact that she wasn't on Facebook. Then he said that he wished she was his girlfriend. Her heart raced when he spoke those words to her. She was flattered, but didn't really know how to respond to that. Luckily, she didn't have to because after that, he said he had to go and said goodnight. It took a long time for her to go to sleep that night.

That was weeks ago. He only said that because he was in a vulnerable state at that moment and was feeling lonely, she told herself. After all, it was the night before his surgery. He probably thought he could say anything he wanted and it wouldn't matter because he could die. But it did matter and he didn't die, and now she knows that maybe it wasn't just because he was feeling vulnerable and lonely. Does he really wish that she was, would be, his girlfriend? Could she be that to Adam Lerner?

Her mind is in a confused state from all this running through her head. She doesn't know what to make of the hand holding, or her being so open with Adam, or even with that midnight phone call. How does she _really_ feel about him? Tensely, she pulls her hand away from Adam's.

"Sorry," he says as he slowly moves his hand back to himself. He's not sure what he's sorry about, if it's because he was trying to be too intimate, or because he feels bad about her friend. Or maybe she thinks that he's using her vulnerability about her friend to take advantage of her in some sick 'sleaze ball' way. He just wanted to display genuine affection, and her immediate action tells him that maybe it definitely was too much to expect right now. Now he really feels like crap.

"No, it's okay," Katie says hesitantly. "Um, I… just need to use your bathroom."

"Oh, yeah, of course." They both head back inside the house, and she makes her way to the bathroom while he locks the back door. The television is still on, but his thoughts are on what just happened. He tries to assure himself that maybe she really did need to go to the bathroom. But if she didn't, if she only said that to find an excuse to separate herself from him for the moment, to find a way to get out of this so-called-date, then what?

He doesn't want her to leave yet. He wants her to stay, at least for a while longer. He knows he really likes this girl.

Maybe he should just let her go if she wants to. It's possible she enjoyed most of the night and will want to see him again another night. They can probably go out to dinner next time, or even go salsa dancing or something, not that he's ever gone salsa dancing before in his life. But he can't think of a next time unless he knows. He has to know for sure.

Before he can think of another idea, he hears the toilet flush and the faucet go on. A minute later, the door opens and he's standing there in the living room, waiting for her. He can't help but look at her doe-like eyes as they stare back at him, with her smile bright as day.

"Um, maybe I should go," Katie mutters as she moves from the hallway. "It's kinda been a long day –", she pauses as she notices the distance between herself and Adam is shrinking.

Adam moves up close to her. Before his ordeal with cancer, Adam would've probably said okay and let her leave. But now that he's survived cancer, now that he knows how close he was to death, he knows he can't just stand by and squander his chances or wait for things to happen. He has to create those chances and make things happen. That's why he called her in the first place. Not just for a date, but for a chance. A chance at a renewed sense of life and fun and happiness. He doesn't know if it's with Katie, but he can't let this opportunity go.

Katie feels her heart pound in her chest and wonders if Adam can hear it, too. He's so close to her now, but she's almost afraid to tilt her head all the way up to look at him, so she just shifts her eyes up to meet his gaze. Katie feels his hand touch her face and it's like a shock of electricity going through her body as she feels the goosebumps on her arms rise. As if in slow motion, he bends forward slightly, his lips almost touching hers. Their eyes lock on each other. He waits for a brief millisecond to see if she backs away, but she doesn't. When their lips finally meet, the rush of warmth engulfs them both.

Adam's eyes are closed, which makes him take her in through his other senses. The softness of Katie's lips, the warmth of her breath on his face, the silkiness of her hair, the smell of her light, fruity bathwash. It's all overwhelming to him, but in a deliciously good way. He wonders if she feels this same way.

When Adam finally releases her, he looks into her eyes again. At first, the look on her face displays a kind of shock, but then the corners of her mouth curl up. Adam didn't realize he was holding his breath until that moment, so he exhaled in a smile to match Katie's.

"Sorry," he said. She shakes her head.

"Don't be. That was nice," Katie admits.

"Do you really have to go?" Adam whispers to her.

"No." That one word was all he needed.

They find their way back to the sofa, and continue watching the tube. They had forgotten it had been going the whole time, but it didn't matter. Adam just wanted time with Katie, and Katie no longer seemed uncomfortable or tense or sad or guilty. Far from it, because almost immediately when they sat down, what little space between them was closed off when she moved herself over so her side pressed against his. He takes her hand in his, interlocking their fingers again, and she leans her head on his shoulder. Adam shifts his eyes to her and smiles softly before he leans himself back on the sofa. There they sit, watching a snow leopard chase after her prey down a steep mountainside.

His eyes open to sunlight gleaming through the curtains of his window the next morning. He is grinning from ear to ear, because he knows that last night was real. Because she is still there, lying next to him on the sofa, her head and hand resting on his chest. Somehow, during the night, they had positioned themselves lengthwise on the sofa. His arm is wrapped around her shoulders, as if keeping her warm. He lay there, reminiscing about the night before.

After they kissed, they sat watching television for a while, and as the night went on, he wondered if she actually had to go. However, he was so comfortable with her there, and a little sleepy, that he figured he'll give her a few more minutes before he asks her. She seemed really comfortable, too. At least comfortable enough to bring her legs up on the sofa. And she smelled great! Whatever she was using to bathe herself in, it wasn't something he smelled on her before, especially during their sessions. For some reason, he chuckled about it. He never did get around to asking her about leaving, because he closed his eyes and didn't open them again until now. He is probably going to feel stiff and sore later, but he couldn't care less right now. It was worth it.

_Maybe_, he thought, _I'll make her some pancakes_.


End file.
